In which Kurosaki Ichigo dies a year before he would otherwise meet Rukia Kuchiki, ruining just...
Bleach: Derailed
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001- Introduction
TPK
Hello, friend.
In which Kurosaki Ichigo dies a year before he would otherwise meet Rukia Kuchiki, ruining just about everyone's plans.
"Name and district?" The short man at the desk asks you.
"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, and uh, I don't remember." You admit. "The guys I met when I woke up weren't very interested in talking."
The man at the desk blinks and leans to the side, glancing at your feet. "It had to be past the fifty-ninth, at least. That is, unless you got mugged for your sandals?"
You shrug. "There were a couple of jerks, but I never had sandals."
"Well, how long ago'd you come in?"
"A few days?" You guess.
"I'll put you down as a sixty, then. Arrivals sent a lot of fresh souls that way recently." The man says. "Only the really new guys don't know what district they showed up in, so I figured you were new, but not just days in! You know you could have just asked somebody which district you were in, right?
That stings -as if you hadn't thought of that! "I'm not stupid." You snap. "I just decided to figure out how to get some food instead of worrying about where I was."
The short man parts his hair again and gives you a sidelong glance. "By the way... you know that you're dead, right? A spirit?"
"Yes." You say firmly, and with more than a little heat. "I asked around, and people told me that I could go back to the living world, and see my family again if I signed up. I have two sisters, Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki, and my dad too."
At that the man at the desk puts down his pen. "Kid, I'll be honest with you. Your family won't be able to see you, won't be able to touch you, won't be able to hear you. There's not even a guarantee that you'll be able to check in with them, even if you graduate. Only the really exceptional people get to request leave in the human world."
You'd normally get mad at anyone telling you that you can't see your family, that you can't even look in on them, but... there's sympathy in the official's face. "Then I'll just have to be one of those people. It's not your problem."
"Fair enough."
The tense mood shatters when your stomach protests being starved for three days by squirming in your belly and growling like an animal.
"Moving on quickly, I'll need a thumb print, a signature, and your height."
You bend over, sign on the dotted line, press your thumb into the ink pad and then again in the little box under a page of dense script, and exhale. "One hundred and seventy two centimeters. So I'm a soul reaper now?"
"Nah." The guy says with a wide grin as he reaches under his desk and pulls out a stack of clothes in blue and white. "Welcome to the academy, Ichigo Kurosaki."
BLEACH: Derailed
In a strange place, taken from all you know, stepping forward into new responsibilities for the mere hope of seeing your family again... How do you want to do this? You could try to see how the wind blows, brace yourself against it, or just ignore it and push onward.
[] It might be a good idea to be quiet for a while, and see how to blend in. You don't want attention.
[] Who cares if you get a reputation? You had one when you were alive, and it didn't matter then either.
[] You need to focus on graduating as soon as you can, not whether or not you're blending in.
"Name and district?" The short man at the desk asks you.
"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, and uh, I don't remember." You admit. "The guys I met when I woke up weren't very interested in talking."
The man at the desk blinks and leans to the side, glancing at your feet. "It had to be past the fifty-ninth, at least. That is, unless you got mugged for your sandals?"
You shrug. "There were a couple of jerks, but I never had sandals."
"Well, how long ago'd you come in?"
"A few days?" You guess.
"I'll put you down as a sixty, then. Arrivals sent a lot of fresh souls that way recently." The man says. "Only the really new guys don't know what district they showed up in, so I figured you were new, but not just days in! You know you could have just asked somebody which district you were in, right?
That stings -as if you hadn't thought of that! "I'm not stupid." You snap. "I just decided to figure out how to get some food instead of worrying about where I was."
The short man parts his hair again and gives you a sidelong glance. "By the way... you know that you're dead, right? A spirit?"
"Yes." You say firmly, and with more than a little heat. "I asked around, and people told me that I could go back to the living world, and see my family again if I signed up. I have two sisters, Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki, and my dad too."
At that the man at the desk puts down his pen. "Kid, I'll be honest with you. Your family won't be able to see you, won't be able to touch you, won't be able to hear you. There's not even a guarantee that you'll be able to check in with them, even if you graduate. Only the really exceptional people get to request leave in the human world."
You'd normally get mad at anyone telling you that you can't see your family, that you can't even look in on them, but... there's sympathy in the official's face. "Then I'll just have to be one of those people. It's not your problem."
"Fair enough."
The tense mood shatters when your stomach protests being starved for three days by squirming in your belly and growling like an animal.
"Moving on quickly, I'll need a thumb print, a signature, and your height."
You bend over, sign on the dotted line, press your thumb into the ink pad and then again in the little box under a page of dense script, and exhale. "One hundred and seventy two centimeters. So I'm a soul reaper now?"
"Nah." The guy says with a wide grin as he reaches under his desk and pulls out a stack of clothes in blue and white. "Welcome to the academy, Ichigo Kurosaki."
BLEACH: Derailed
In a strange place, taken from all you know, stepping forward into new responsibilities for the mere hope of seeing your family again... How do you want to do this? You could try to see how the wind blows, brace yourself against it, or just ignore it and push onward.
[] It might be a good idea to be quiet for a while, and see how to blend in. You don't want attention.
[] Who cares if you get a reputation? You had one when you were alive, and it didn't matter then either.
[] You need to focus on graduating as soon as you can, not whether or not you're blending in.
Character Sheet
TPK
Hello, friend.
Reiryoku (spirit power): Lots
Hakuda (unarmed): Surprisingly effective
Hoho (movement): The beginnings of Shunpo are in your grasp
Kido
-Kaido (healing): Unreliable
-Bakudo (sealing): You've got one good trick
-Hado (destructive): Be careful, and stick to small spells
Zanjutsu (swords): What the fuck, Zangetsu?
Training Priorities:
1. Hoho
2. Zanjutsu
3. Kido (kaido)
4. Kido (hado)
5. Hakuda
6. Kido (bakudo)
Schedule
Monday: Hakuda
Tuesday: Kido (kaido)
Wednesday: Hoho
Thursday: Kido (bakudo)
Friday: Kido (hado)
Saturday: Zanjutsu
Sunday:
Hakuda (unarmed): Surprisingly effective
Hoho (movement): The beginnings of Shunpo are in your grasp
Kido
-Kaido (healing): Unreliable
-Bakudo (sealing): You've got one good trick
-Hado (destructive): Be careful, and stick to small spells
Zanjutsu (swords): What the fuck, Zangetsu?
Training Priorities:
1. Hoho
2. Zanjutsu
3. Kido (kaido)
4. Kido (hado)
5. Hakuda
6. Kido (bakudo)
Schedule
Monday: Hakuda
Tuesday: Kido (kaido)
Wednesday: Hoho
Thursday: Kido (bakudo)
Friday: Kido (hado)
Saturday: Zanjutsu
Sunday:
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FAQ
TPK
Hello, friend.
FAQ
Q. What is canon?
A. Canon is the manga. the anime (except where contradicted by the manga), and the movies. Some things in the anime that don't fit the manga might be cherry-picked out, but if there's a contradiction, then ask first.
Q. The Wandenreich/Fullbringer/Aizen/Bount/Soul Society arc was bad, and I don't like it.
A. Some parts of Bleach were done badly, yes.
Q. Then why are you using them?
A. Because I can do them better.
Q. What are Bounts?
A. Swedish/Japanese vampires with Stands.
A. Canon is the manga. the anime (except where contradicted by the manga), and the movies. Some things in the anime that don't fit the manga might be cherry-picked out, but if there's a contradiction, then ask first.
Q. The Wandenreich/Fullbringer/Aizen/Bount/Soul Society arc was bad, and I don't like it.
A. Some parts of Bleach were done badly, yes.
Q. Then why are you using them?
A. Because I can do them better.
Q. What are Bounts?
A. Swedish/Japanese vampires with Stands.
Q. Why aren't there numbers, or ranks?
A. Because I don't write that kind of thing well.
Q. How do I use the stats given?
A. The stats list gauges how you (Ichigo) assess your own skills. Thus a listing of "pretty good" means that you think you're okay at something, while a "hell yeah" indicates general approval of your own ability.
A. Because I don't write that kind of thing well.
Q. How do I use the stats given?
A. The stats list gauges how you (Ichigo) assess your own skills. Thus a listing of "pretty good" means that you think you're okay at something, while a "hell yeah" indicates general approval of your own ability.
Q. What was the total maritime volume of maritime cargo loaded onto Japanese vessels, in Japanese ports, in 2001?
A. 2 million tons.
A. 2 million tons.
Last edited:
002
TPK
Hello, friend.
[X] You need to focus on graduating as soon as you can, not whether or not you're blending in.
The clothes look like something a samurai would wear. The shirt's front and back are slightly stiff, giving them a look almost like armor without actually resisting when you try to bend it, and it's sleeves are just as loose as the grey-blue pants. The changing area is much like a gym, except that there's another soul reaper handing out plain white bags to put belongings in. Some students have theirs almost packed to the brim, while most come with little, or nothing -like you.
You follow along with the flow of the crowd as more people come in and go out into the wide hallways. The air outside... can you even call it outside? Soul Society isn't like Earth, where you can launch a rocket into space and it'll keep going forever, until it hits another planet. You've heard people call it vast, but finite. Somewhere above, below, and in all cardinal directions the world just... stops.
It's difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that this new world is flat.
A vast auditorium opens out ahead of you, descending down in great wedges filled with row after row of seats. Another pair of students are standing at the door, and the woman of the two hands you a booklet. You're pushed along by the press of bodies before you can say more than a quick word of thanks, herded into a row halfway down the aisle where you sit in a seat that clearly isn't made for someone of your height. It probably wouldn't have been comfortable for a more average person either, you think with a twist of your mouth in a slight smile. You guess some things don't change when you die. Public institutions always buy the cheap seats.
"Hey, carrot top."
A sharp pain on the back of your head makes you close your eyes and count to ten. You're a fast counter, so you take some extra time to think about how other things haven't changed too.
You turn around. "Yeah?"
The person who slapped you looks around, and quickly finds out that the seats on either side of him are mysteriously empty, their occupants vanished to more remote seating arrangements. "Uh. Nothing." He says, and you turn back around.
He even looks like some of the guys who used to give you grief over your looks back in... back when you were alive.
That's still a big lump of a thought.
Someone comes out on stage and starts talking. It's a "Welcome to Soul Society, where you will have employment-slash-education-slash-live your life speech, so you only pay a little bit of attention, just enough so that when he gets to something you actually need to learn, you'll know to listen closely, which is timely because you just noticed the list of laws written on the underside of the pamphlet in your hand.
The High Laws, the laws of Central 46, who are apparently the judges and legislature of the afterlife combined in one body, don't seem to have many laws, but the ones they do... No learning things officially labeled forbidden is simple enough, no losing anything really important and powerful, no killing of living people or souls, no manufacture of weapons without proper authorization, no mixing the spiritual realms, no messing with the records about the dangai (whatever that is), but there are a few laws that make you clench the papers in your suddenly balled fist.
It is illegal to meddle in the affairs of nobility, unless the guilt of the noble is beyond doubt. "What is this, the feudal period?" You question under your breath, and then remember the state of the districts outside. They were like a historical preserve, with only a few things that looked to be more modern than the Meji era. From the look of the monitors hanging from the ceiling, displaying the broad-shouldered bald man talking about how no class takes place at the same time as any other, and only the exams matter?
You go over that again in your head to make sure you heard it right. Yeah. So you could theoretically skip all of the classes and just take the exams, if you were some kind of savant, or too stupid to breathe and walk at the same time.
But what draws your attention back to the list of laws is a short one slid right in the middle of the pack. No soul reaper shall stay longer than authorized in the human world.
So you'll need to be authorized. You can work with that. The beginnings of a plan take form. Step one is to get out of the Shin'o Academy and into a position in one of the... you double check the diagram on the second page... thirteen squads, preferably an officer's position. They call those 'seated' positions, and they run from second to twentieth, with lower numbers being better; second seat means second in command. Step two is to get assigned to patrol Karakura Town for soul-eating monsters. Step three is where you get to see your family again, get to check in, get to make sure that your dad hasn't gone crazy like he did when mom died, and that your little sisters are coping.
Three steps.
It's not a complex plan.
The man on the stage below bows formally to you all. "-conclusion, your entrance examination will begin shortly. Those of you who fail to meet the criteria we are looking for will be free to try again in our next recruiting period, in six months. Any questions?" Immediately, it seems like everyone starts talking to their neighbors. The woman next to you even twists to talk to a short man in the next row up.
"Yeah! I've got one. What's the shortest time it ever took for someone to graduate?" You ask, and then when you're not heard over the whispers of hundreds you repeat yourself, louder. "Hey!"
An instinct from years of public school has you raising you hand to be singled out, but when you realize that it isn't working you quickly turn it into a wave for attention. The bald teacher looks up at you from the dais at the bottom of the room. "Yes?" He says, quieting the room with a word and a feeling of strange pressure, as though the air was slightly heavier than normal.
"Er. Thanks. What's the fastest time it's ever taken for someone to graduate?"
"Now-Captain Gin Ichimaru completed the six year course in a single year." He says. His wide, rimless glasses catch the light momentarily as he tilts his head and smiles. "I take it you aim to match that time?"
"I'm going to. No, scratch that. I have to." You announce, your words are a promise made to every single person in the auditorium.
Something passes over the older man's face. It appears and vanishes so quickly that you can't even see it on the big television screens, but it might have been recognition. "I see." He says, and though his next words are for everyone, he doesn't take his eyes off of you. "I wish you all the best of luck, the best fortune... and the best reasons, and I thank you for choosing to attempt to walk this path."
It turns out that the first test is to actually get a zanpakuto to react to you. Apparently the swords soul reapers wear aren't just swords, but swords with souls, or swords made out of souls? The guy wearing a cloth mask long enough to reach his shins, apparently a member of the kido corps, didn't go into specifics.
"Pick an asauchi off the wall." He says. Nobody moves. There are twenty of you here, nineteen other prospective students in the sub-group you were separated into once you left the auditorium, and all of you can recognize a trick this obvious when you see it.
"Just... any sword?" The short man who the woman who sat next to you knows takes a step forward, the brunette following quickly behind.
"Any sword that you can pick." All you can see of the kido corps member is his eyes, but that's all you need to know that he's smiling.
In response the other student walks forward, puts out his hand... and stops. There are hundreds of plain blades on wooden stands present. The one he reached for looks like any other, and yet he pauses. He takes his hand back and shakes his head. "Not this one. It's not for me. Is this the test?"
"It is." The masked man admits with a nod. He turns to face all of you. "Each asauchi, though a blank template for your soul to express itself through, is in itself unique in how it is blank. A soul reaper is required to have a zanpakuto for duty. If we do not have an asauchi that you can use to purify souls, then you cannot be accepted into the academy this year. I'm sorry, and it's no fault of your own if it turns out that there simply isn't a blade that accepts your spiritual power, but sometimes things are not always what we want."
That makes you grit your teeth in frustration as others gasp, or swear under their breaths. It's random. It's nothing but random chance! If there's not a blade that accepts you-
You shut down that line of thought, clamping your mind across it and smothering it before you can start to panic. You will pass this test. Any other options is unacceptable.
You could just watch and see what the others do, then copy what seems to work the best. Another option is to walk up to one end of the room and work your way through.
Or... you could try walking up to the closest sword and taking it. This whole test could be like one of those martial arts / philosophy things Tatsuki always understood better than you did. 'Punch through the board', 'do not think, act', 'there is no spoon'. These are magic swords, right? You could try to push your spiritual energy into the swords, but you've never actually tried to manipulate that before. It can't be hard though, right?
But how? You can't have unlimited time to do this.
[] Watch the others to see what works for them.
[] Start at one end and work your way through.
[] Don't think about getting a sword. Find your sword.
[] Try to push your spiritual energy out into the room.
The clothes look like something a samurai would wear. The shirt's front and back are slightly stiff, giving them a look almost like armor without actually resisting when you try to bend it, and it's sleeves are just as loose as the grey-blue pants. The changing area is much like a gym, except that there's another soul reaper handing out plain white bags to put belongings in. Some students have theirs almost packed to the brim, while most come with little, or nothing -like you.
You follow along with the flow of the crowd as more people come in and go out into the wide hallways. The air outside... can you even call it outside? Soul Society isn't like Earth, where you can launch a rocket into space and it'll keep going forever, until it hits another planet. You've heard people call it vast, but finite. Somewhere above, below, and in all cardinal directions the world just... stops.
It's difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that this new world is flat.
A vast auditorium opens out ahead of you, descending down in great wedges filled with row after row of seats. Another pair of students are standing at the door, and the woman of the two hands you a booklet. You're pushed along by the press of bodies before you can say more than a quick word of thanks, herded into a row halfway down the aisle where you sit in a seat that clearly isn't made for someone of your height. It probably wouldn't have been comfortable for a more average person either, you think with a twist of your mouth in a slight smile. You guess some things don't change when you die. Public institutions always buy the cheap seats.
"Hey, carrot top."
A sharp pain on the back of your head makes you close your eyes and count to ten. You're a fast counter, so you take some extra time to think about how other things haven't changed too.
You turn around. "Yeah?"
The person who slapped you looks around, and quickly finds out that the seats on either side of him are mysteriously empty, their occupants vanished to more remote seating arrangements. "Uh. Nothing." He says, and you turn back around.
He even looks like some of the guys who used to give you grief over your looks back in... back when you were alive.
That's still a big lump of a thought.
Someone comes out on stage and starts talking. It's a "Welcome to Soul Society, where you will have employment-slash-education-slash-live your life speech, so you only pay a little bit of attention, just enough so that when he gets to something you actually need to learn, you'll know to listen closely, which is timely because you just noticed the list of laws written on the underside of the pamphlet in your hand.
The High Laws, the laws of Central 46, who are apparently the judges and legislature of the afterlife combined in one body, don't seem to have many laws, but the ones they do... No learning things officially labeled forbidden is simple enough, no losing anything really important and powerful, no killing of living people or souls, no manufacture of weapons without proper authorization, no mixing the spiritual realms, no messing with the records about the dangai (whatever that is), but there are a few laws that make you clench the papers in your suddenly balled fist.
It is illegal to meddle in the affairs of nobility, unless the guilt of the noble is beyond doubt. "What is this, the feudal period?" You question under your breath, and then remember the state of the districts outside. They were like a historical preserve, with only a few things that looked to be more modern than the Meji era. From the look of the monitors hanging from the ceiling, displaying the broad-shouldered bald man talking about how no class takes place at the same time as any other, and only the exams matter?
You go over that again in your head to make sure you heard it right. Yeah. So you could theoretically skip all of the classes and just take the exams, if you were some kind of savant, or too stupid to breathe and walk at the same time.
But what draws your attention back to the list of laws is a short one slid right in the middle of the pack. No soul reaper shall stay longer than authorized in the human world.
So you'll need to be authorized. You can work with that. The beginnings of a plan take form. Step one is to get out of the Shin'o Academy and into a position in one of the... you double check the diagram on the second page... thirteen squads, preferably an officer's position. They call those 'seated' positions, and they run from second to twentieth, with lower numbers being better; second seat means second in command. Step two is to get assigned to patrol Karakura Town for soul-eating monsters. Step three is where you get to see your family again, get to check in, get to make sure that your dad hasn't gone crazy like he did when mom died, and that your little sisters are coping.
Three steps.
It's not a complex plan.
The man on the stage below bows formally to you all. "-conclusion, your entrance examination will begin shortly. Those of you who fail to meet the criteria we are looking for will be free to try again in our next recruiting period, in six months. Any questions?" Immediately, it seems like everyone starts talking to their neighbors. The woman next to you even twists to talk to a short man in the next row up.
"Yeah! I've got one. What's the shortest time it ever took for someone to graduate?" You ask, and then when you're not heard over the whispers of hundreds you repeat yourself, louder. "Hey!"
An instinct from years of public school has you raising you hand to be singled out, but when you realize that it isn't working you quickly turn it into a wave for attention. The bald teacher looks up at you from the dais at the bottom of the room. "Yes?" He says, quieting the room with a word and a feeling of strange pressure, as though the air was slightly heavier than normal.
"Er. Thanks. What's the fastest time it's ever taken for someone to graduate?"
"Now-Captain Gin Ichimaru completed the six year course in a single year." He says. His wide, rimless glasses catch the light momentarily as he tilts his head and smiles. "I take it you aim to match that time?"
"I'm going to. No, scratch that. I have to." You announce, your words are a promise made to every single person in the auditorium.
Something passes over the older man's face. It appears and vanishes so quickly that you can't even see it on the big television screens, but it might have been recognition. "I see." He says, and though his next words are for everyone, he doesn't take his eyes off of you. "I wish you all the best of luck, the best fortune... and the best reasons, and I thank you for choosing to attempt to walk this path."
It turns out that the first test is to actually get a zanpakuto to react to you. Apparently the swords soul reapers wear aren't just swords, but swords with souls, or swords made out of souls? The guy wearing a cloth mask long enough to reach his shins, apparently a member of the kido corps, didn't go into specifics.
"Pick an asauchi off the wall." He says. Nobody moves. There are twenty of you here, nineteen other prospective students in the sub-group you were separated into once you left the auditorium, and all of you can recognize a trick this obvious when you see it.
"Just... any sword?" The short man who the woman who sat next to you knows takes a step forward, the brunette following quickly behind.
"Any sword that you can pick." All you can see of the kido corps member is his eyes, but that's all you need to know that he's smiling.
In response the other student walks forward, puts out his hand... and stops. There are hundreds of plain blades on wooden stands present. The one he reached for looks like any other, and yet he pauses. He takes his hand back and shakes his head. "Not this one. It's not for me. Is this the test?"
"It is." The masked man admits with a nod. He turns to face all of you. "Each asauchi, though a blank template for your soul to express itself through, is in itself unique in how it is blank. A soul reaper is required to have a zanpakuto for duty. If we do not have an asauchi that you can use to purify souls, then you cannot be accepted into the academy this year. I'm sorry, and it's no fault of your own if it turns out that there simply isn't a blade that accepts your spiritual power, but sometimes things are not always what we want."
That makes you grit your teeth in frustration as others gasp, or swear under their breaths. It's random. It's nothing but random chance! If there's not a blade that accepts you-
You shut down that line of thought, clamping your mind across it and smothering it before you can start to panic. You will pass this test. Any other options is unacceptable.
You could just watch and see what the others do, then copy what seems to work the best. Another option is to walk up to one end of the room and work your way through.
Or... you could try walking up to the closest sword and taking it. This whole test could be like one of those martial arts / philosophy things Tatsuki always understood better than you did. 'Punch through the board', 'do not think, act', 'there is no spoon'. These are magic swords, right? You could try to push your spiritual energy into the swords, but you've never actually tried to manipulate that before. It can't be hard though, right?
But how? You can't have unlimited time to do this.
[] Watch the others to see what works for them.
[] Start at one end and work your way through.
[] Don't think about getting a sword. Find your sword.
[] Try to push your spiritual energy out into the room.
003
TPK
Hello, friend.
[] Don't think about getting a sword. Find your sword.
It's like picking up something that you can't see, but that must be there, like a toothbrush in a dark bathroom, you reason. You can pick it up without actually stopping to think about picking it up, because your instincts know where it is.
Which is total bullshit because you know that the only part of your body that 'knows' anything is your brain, but since you're a dead soul in the afterlife going to an academy to be a ghost samurai and hunt monsters... You won't complain about impossible things. It seems a bit silly.
Somewhere in this room is a sword that's a perfect match to you. You need to stop thinking about it, and start picking it up, but to do that you have to find it. You close your eyes and stop thinking. You trace your breath through your lungs, feeling the motion move through your body, feeling something else move through you. It emanates out from your center in slow waves, and it's both familiar and new at the same time.
It's like grabbing a part of you that you always took for granted and feeling its shape, being surprised at just how bony your fingers are, or stopping and staring at your strong chin in profile and thinking, 'is that me?'
Minutes pass, you think. Maybe they're just seconds. Either way, nobody has a sword in their hand when you open your eyes and see that the room is full of inch-wide, translucent glowing ribbons.
Most of the ribbons are white, and barely show up against the background of the visible room. Their free ends drift in the air, and their other sides are tethered to the plain swords on the wall, but you see a dozen that are red rather than white. They're spaced out with no visible pattern behind their distribution, and the red ribbons don't have a free end -the other side vanishes into the chest of one of the student applicants.
There's a red ribbon attached to you. You follow it to its sword, reach out, and pick it up without hesitation. Your ribbon thrums, and the sword in your hand suddenly squirms. Its hilt's ornamentation writhes as the steel bar beneath it expands, lengthening to nearly a foot long in proportion to the rest of the blade, which grows smoothly outward until it takes the shape of a giant, oversized blade with a light backward curve. It looks like nothing more than an oversized tanto.
"Ichigo Kurosaki has passed the entrance examination." The proctor intones solemnly, and the ribbons fade from your vision. "Please exit the room using the door opposite the one you entered by, to be assigned your dormitory. Five minutes remain in this round of the examination."
The atmosphere of the room immediately shifts to one of desperation as the remaining nineteen candidates rush from rack to rack, trying to find their match.
On your way to the door you notice that the woman you sat next to in the auditorium is darting away from the sword you saw her ribbon lead to. She's tall for a woman, taller than you are right now, but she's definitely a few years older than you. Unfortunately, she's also built like a stick. Her clothes hang off her like they would from a hangar. Without giving it conscious thought, you step in front of her to block her path and she freezes.
"Maybe try that set next." You tilt your head at the appropriate rack and then walk around her, going stone-faced as you realize that you might have just interfered with someone else's examination. Are you going to get thrown out?
But the masked soul reaper doesn't react, save to glance at you as you pass, and then back into the room to announce, "Takako Omaeda has passed the entrance examination."
Going down the hallway -Shin'o Academy seemed to have a lot of long hallways between classrooms- you're soon joined by the woman you'd steered toward her sword, evidently Takako. She dashes ahead of you, sandals clacking on the floor, and then bows at the waist in a quick up-down motion. "I don't know how you did it, but thank you for your assistance!"
"I'm actually pretty interested in that myself." A grey-haired man says as he opens the door at the end of the hall, just before you reach it. He wears a white coat over his black uniform, and he squints like he needs glasses, or is failing to hold back his smile. He gestures for you to follow him through a room filled by several more soul reapers without white coats, and a large screen displaying the events of the sword room.
On finding yourself in another corridor, you wonder exactly how much the man who designed this place loved long, open spaces. "I just figured that, since there had to be a sword to fit me there, I just needed to recognize what it'd feel like. I saw these ribbon things."
"Spirit ribbons?" The brunette woman puts a name to the thing. "But... Huh. I hadn't thought of that."
"...That does sound like the kind of thing that would work. Anyway my name's Gin, Gin Ichimaru." The smiling man says.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Nice to meet you."
"Takako Omaeda, pleased to meet you, captain!" She bows.
Captain? You look at the man in a new light. This is the kind of man you need to get in your corner, but doesn't he look kind of shifty for a man in a position of authority? Then you remember that your father is a respected medical professional, and shrug internally. Whatever.
"Am I supposed to bow, or something?" You ask.
Gin shakes his head, the movement loose and easy. "Nah. Omaeda here is just doing it because her family is big on respect. You aren't actually soul reapers yet, so the only people you should be bowing are your teachers. Most of the captains are pretty laid back about that."
The three of you walk along for a little while longer, Takako stiffly formal, Gin relaxed and content not to speak, and you wondering why one of the people in charge of Soul Society is wasting his time doing something with two new students.
"So I bet you're wondering why I'm the one who met ya, right?"
"That's just what I was thinking about, actually."
"Fine, fine. Shin'o Academy has different classes. Class 1 is the best students, with the smallest class sizes and the best lessons, and class 3 is the worst -the people who probably won't pass but aren't being dropped because they can work their way up if they get their act together. Normally students start as members of class 2, and they stay there until they either finish the six year curriculum, earn a promotion to the good class, or get demoted to class 3. Omaeda, your family wants to sponsor you. Do you wanna be a member of class 1?"
"Yes! Thank you, captain."
Gin looks at you, next. At least his face turns to you. You can't actually see his eyes behind that squint. "As for you, Kurosaki... you've got no sponsor, so you'll get put in class 2 to start with."
"How do I get into class 1?" You ask intently. "You mentioned promotions into it?"
"At the twice-yearly examinations, yeah." The captain says. "But there's another way."
"I don't have a noble family."
"...I dunno. You look a bit like a Shiba to me."
"Really?" You ask, surprised.
"Really. It's too bad that the Shiba are a disgraced noble family. You're not getting anything from them, unless you want fireworks, or alcohol."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome! Anyway, you've got enough spiritual power in you that you should be able to get a promotion up to class 1 easy enough, as soon as you stop spraying it everywhere, anyway, but I figure that you'd probably like to start there, instead."
You fit the pieces together. "And you're willing to sponsor me?"
"I knew you weren't stupid." Gin says with a slightly wider smile. "I like interesting people, and you seem like you're somebody worth getting to know. You can pay me back by uh... I'll think of something. Do you drink?"
"Not much." You had a sip of sake once.
"I'll figure something out. Just think about it, and drop my name at the desk if you really do want to graduate as quickly as possible."
And with that he vanishes, just- gone.
"Perhaps... Kurosaki, my family is a noble one. I would be honored to sponsor you into the first class, on their behalf." Takako says after Gin leaves, a canny gleam in her eye. "My uncle is the second seat of the second division and the vice chief of the omnitsukido, the stealth forces, as well."
Choose one.
[] Take Gin's offer.
[] Accept Takako's offer.
[] Go into class two.
It's like picking up something that you can't see, but that must be there, like a toothbrush in a dark bathroom, you reason. You can pick it up without actually stopping to think about picking it up, because your instincts know where it is.
Which is total bullshit because you know that the only part of your body that 'knows' anything is your brain, but since you're a dead soul in the afterlife going to an academy to be a ghost samurai and hunt monsters... You won't complain about impossible things. It seems a bit silly.
Somewhere in this room is a sword that's a perfect match to you. You need to stop thinking about it, and start picking it up, but to do that you have to find it. You close your eyes and stop thinking. You trace your breath through your lungs, feeling the motion move through your body, feeling something else move through you. It emanates out from your center in slow waves, and it's both familiar and new at the same time.
It's like grabbing a part of you that you always took for granted and feeling its shape, being surprised at just how bony your fingers are, or stopping and staring at your strong chin in profile and thinking, 'is that me?'
Minutes pass, you think. Maybe they're just seconds. Either way, nobody has a sword in their hand when you open your eyes and see that the room is full of inch-wide, translucent glowing ribbons.
Most of the ribbons are white, and barely show up against the background of the visible room. Their free ends drift in the air, and their other sides are tethered to the plain swords on the wall, but you see a dozen that are red rather than white. They're spaced out with no visible pattern behind their distribution, and the red ribbons don't have a free end -the other side vanishes into the chest of one of the student applicants.
There's a red ribbon attached to you. You follow it to its sword, reach out, and pick it up without hesitation. Your ribbon thrums, and the sword in your hand suddenly squirms. Its hilt's ornamentation writhes as the steel bar beneath it expands, lengthening to nearly a foot long in proportion to the rest of the blade, which grows smoothly outward until it takes the shape of a giant, oversized blade with a light backward curve. It looks like nothing more than an oversized tanto.
"Ichigo Kurosaki has passed the entrance examination." The proctor intones solemnly, and the ribbons fade from your vision. "Please exit the room using the door opposite the one you entered by, to be assigned your dormitory. Five minutes remain in this round of the examination."
The atmosphere of the room immediately shifts to one of desperation as the remaining nineteen candidates rush from rack to rack, trying to find their match.
On your way to the door you notice that the woman you sat next to in the auditorium is darting away from the sword you saw her ribbon lead to. She's tall for a woman, taller than you are right now, but she's definitely a few years older than you. Unfortunately, she's also built like a stick. Her clothes hang off her like they would from a hangar. Without giving it conscious thought, you step in front of her to block her path and she freezes.
"Maybe try that set next." You tilt your head at the appropriate rack and then walk around her, going stone-faced as you realize that you might have just interfered with someone else's examination. Are you going to get thrown out?
But the masked soul reaper doesn't react, save to glance at you as you pass, and then back into the room to announce, "Takako Omaeda has passed the entrance examination."
Going down the hallway -Shin'o Academy seemed to have a lot of long hallways between classrooms- you're soon joined by the woman you'd steered toward her sword, evidently Takako. She dashes ahead of you, sandals clacking on the floor, and then bows at the waist in a quick up-down motion. "I don't know how you did it, but thank you for your assistance!"
"I'm actually pretty interested in that myself." A grey-haired man says as he opens the door at the end of the hall, just before you reach it. He wears a white coat over his black uniform, and he squints like he needs glasses, or is failing to hold back his smile. He gestures for you to follow him through a room filled by several more soul reapers without white coats, and a large screen displaying the events of the sword room.
On finding yourself in another corridor, you wonder exactly how much the man who designed this place loved long, open spaces. "I just figured that, since there had to be a sword to fit me there, I just needed to recognize what it'd feel like. I saw these ribbon things."
"Spirit ribbons?" The brunette woman puts a name to the thing. "But... Huh. I hadn't thought of that."
"...That does sound like the kind of thing that would work. Anyway my name's Gin, Gin Ichimaru." The smiling man says.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Nice to meet you."
"Takako Omaeda, pleased to meet you, captain!" She bows.
Captain? You look at the man in a new light. This is the kind of man you need to get in your corner, but doesn't he look kind of shifty for a man in a position of authority? Then you remember that your father is a respected medical professional, and shrug internally. Whatever.
"Am I supposed to bow, or something?" You ask.
Gin shakes his head, the movement loose and easy. "Nah. Omaeda here is just doing it because her family is big on respect. You aren't actually soul reapers yet, so the only people you should be bowing are your teachers. Most of the captains are pretty laid back about that."
The three of you walk along for a little while longer, Takako stiffly formal, Gin relaxed and content not to speak, and you wondering why one of the people in charge of Soul Society is wasting his time doing something with two new students.
"So I bet you're wondering why I'm the one who met ya, right?"
"That's just what I was thinking about, actually."
"Fine, fine. Shin'o Academy has different classes. Class 1 is the best students, with the smallest class sizes and the best lessons, and class 3 is the worst -the people who probably won't pass but aren't being dropped because they can work their way up if they get their act together. Normally students start as members of class 2, and they stay there until they either finish the six year curriculum, earn a promotion to the good class, or get demoted to class 3. Omaeda, your family wants to sponsor you. Do you wanna be a member of class 1?"
"Yes! Thank you, captain."
Gin looks at you, next. At least his face turns to you. You can't actually see his eyes behind that squint. "As for you, Kurosaki... you've got no sponsor, so you'll get put in class 2 to start with."
"How do I get into class 1?" You ask intently. "You mentioned promotions into it?"
"At the twice-yearly examinations, yeah." The captain says. "But there's another way."
"I don't have a noble family."
"...I dunno. You look a bit like a Shiba to me."
"Really?" You ask, surprised.
"Really. It's too bad that the Shiba are a disgraced noble family. You're not getting anything from them, unless you want fireworks, or alcohol."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome! Anyway, you've got enough spiritual power in you that you should be able to get a promotion up to class 1 easy enough, as soon as you stop spraying it everywhere, anyway, but I figure that you'd probably like to start there, instead."
You fit the pieces together. "And you're willing to sponsor me?"
"I knew you weren't stupid." Gin says with a slightly wider smile. "I like interesting people, and you seem like you're somebody worth getting to know. You can pay me back by uh... I'll think of something. Do you drink?"
"Not much." You had a sip of sake once.
"I'll figure something out. Just think about it, and drop my name at the desk if you really do want to graduate as quickly as possible."
And with that he vanishes, just- gone.
"Perhaps... Kurosaki, my family is a noble one. I would be honored to sponsor you into the first class, on their behalf." Takako says after Gin leaves, a canny gleam in her eye. "My uncle is the second seat of the second division and the vice chief of the omnitsukido, the stealth forces, as well."
Choose one.
[] Take Gin's offer.
[] Accept Takako's offer.
[] Go into class two.
Last edited:
Clarification on Nobility and Captains
TPK
Hello, friend.
It's clarification time about things wouldn't really be fair to withhold from people voting, because Bleach has the normal shounen problem of leaving lots of things up to interpretation and inference.
I wouldn't normally be doing this until much later, because I love the way this player base can bring things up and reason them out on their own, but I might do another update tonight. That means I need to hand-feed some information so that nobody feels jilted later. It's clumsy, and I'm sorry about that, but it's how I can make this work, because this choice isn't supposed to be as one-sided "choose X to advance faster" as it's being taken.
From the way things happened in the series, noble families as a whole are a huge deal in Soul Society. They're the long-running, heavily established, feudal lords of the afterlife. They make up 40/46 seats on the combined court and legislature, have special privileges, can have access to potent artifacts, and are very respected. However, unless you're the head of a major family, any individual noble has less weight than a non-noble Captain does.
Minor or low nobility like the Omaedas can offer less support than a single captain like Gin, but what Gin doesn't offer is the access to the upper class of Soul Society. There are other soul reapers who are both captains and low nobility, or even high nobility.
Takako's offer is meant to be a way for you to gain access to that network of nobles, as well as a way to get more immediate access to the whole mess of the nobility in Soul Society.
I wouldn't normally be doing this until much later, because I love the way this player base can bring things up and reason them out on their own, but I might do another update tonight. That means I need to hand-feed some information so that nobody feels jilted later. It's clumsy, and I'm sorry about that, but it's how I can make this work, because this choice isn't supposed to be as one-sided "choose X to advance faster" as it's being taken.
From the way things happened in the series, noble families as a whole are a huge deal in Soul Society. They're the long-running, heavily established, feudal lords of the afterlife. They make up 40/46 seats on the combined court and legislature, have special privileges, can have access to potent artifacts, and are very respected. However, unless you're the head of a major family, any individual noble has less weight than a non-noble Captain does.
Minor or low nobility like the Omaedas can offer less support than a single captain like Gin, but what Gin doesn't offer is the access to the upper class of Soul Society. There are other soul reapers who are both captains and low nobility, or even high nobility.
Takako's offer is meant to be a way for you to gain access to that network of nobles, as well as a way to get more immediate access to the whole mess of the nobility in Soul Society.
Soi Fon's status as joint captain of the second division and head of the ninja cosplay squad was left ambiguous in canon. For the purposes of this quest there are soul reapers who are members of one group, or the other group, and reapers who are members of both. So you could join the second division without also joining the "can't ever be as good as Yoruichi" battalion.
004
TPK
Hello, friend.
"Thanks, Takako." You say.
"You... said yes?" The skinny girl repeats, astonished. "But Ichimaru is a captain. Accepting his patronage would have given you a guaranteed spot in his division!"
Which yeah, you kind of figured, but there's more to it than that. "I'm not here just to get a spot. I've got a goal to achieve, and anybody who graduates in a year is probably going to get more than just one offer, I figure. Plus," you grimace. "I don't want to feel obligated to join up if he offers me a spot in his division."
"I see. You're very confident that you can graduate in a year."
"I've got to be. There's no way I'll do it if I doubt myself."
Takako's expression takes on a wan caste. "It's not quite that simple, Kurosaki."
You ignore her.
The next station is class registration, where an elderly woman passes both of you a pair of papers. Yours is different than Takako's, which has an ink seal stamped into a box on the bottom, but before you can do more than notice that obvious difference the noble woman slides yours back. "Ichigo Kurosaki will be advanced to class 1, sponsored by the Omaeda clan." She says.
The aged woman raises her eyebrows, but shrugs and pulls a simple stamp out of her sleeve, marking the appropriate spot. Then she withdraws a pen, and writes OMAEDA below it.
"Thanks." You say.
She nods. "You're welcome."
After that you both look at the papers, which seem to be lists of classes and times throughout the week. At first you're not sure, but a quick check verifies that no two classes are at the same time. Most of the subjects are familiar to you, ones that require a certain amount of proficiency in order to pass their mandatory examinations, but there are a few that have differences, like kido. Instead of there just being one category, there are three: bakudo, hado, kaido -binding, destructive, and healing. Then, of course, there's the things you expected such as zanjutsu, hakuda, and hoho, and the things that make you scratch your head. "What do calligraphy and haiku have to do with being a soul reaper?"
"They're meditative arts." The woman at registration says croakily. "Zanpakuto of a contemplative nature often desire their users to become more in tune with their surroundings, and to gain some manner of self reflection that poetry and art provide."
"And zanjutsu is swordsmanship, right?" You ask, just to be sure.
Which is when the young woman next to you decides that staying silent wasn't accomplishing anything. "Yes. Of course, you will need more skills other than simple zanjutsu. Kido at the least, destructive and otherwise, perhaps barriers- " Takako lays out options you'd only glanced over at blistering speed, timidity vanished under the ever growing mass.
"Shouldn't I focus on one thing, if I want to graduate quickly?" You say, considering just signing up for all the zanjutsu slots and nothing else.
"Only if you want to be nothing more than a brainless thug, like so many commoners." And just like that you're reminded that Takako is one of those nobles you were thinking poorly of, admittedly for no reason other than that Soul Society still has nobles with actual power. You'll need to try harder to remember that, in the future. "Anyway, you should definitely take these classes, and you can sign up for meditation in the spring should your zanpakuto spirit need more prompting to bond with you."
Before you can say anything to object you're signed up for one class a week in almost everything. No day save Sunday is completely free of classes, though you only have zanjutsu on Saturday. You do the normal thing to estimate how much time each class will take, doubling the length of the class for good measure and adding that as 'practice time', and frown. "What if I want free time?"
"Then drop one of the classes. Class 1 members can do that. It's a benefit of being a more advanced student."
Dropping a class. Gah. If you hadn't always assumed you'd just inherit the family clinic, and had been the kind of guy to get stressed about bad marks on your record stopping you from getting into a good college... Well, some of your classmates would be upset with you for dropping anything, at least, but it looks like Takako knows better than you so whatever.
SCHEDULE
Monday: Hakuda (kaido)
Tuesday: Hoho
Thursday: Kido (bakudo)
Friday: Kido (hado)
Saturday: Zanjutsu
Sunday:
You do some quick annotation on a blank piece of paper to keep better track of things.
SCHEDULE
Monday: Hakuda, Kido (kaido) -hand to hand, healing magic
Tuesday: Hoho -movement magic (?)
Thursday: Kido (bakudo) -barrier magic
Friday: Kido (hado) -destruction magic
Saturday: Zanjutsu -swords
Sunday:
"Healing, huh?" You murmur. The idea appeals. "My dad's a healer."
"Maybe you'll have an advantage, if the teacher is anything like him."
"Hopefully the teacher's not like him at all." You grumble. "The old man's a maniac."
"I believe I'm familiar with the feeling." Takako says, commiserating.
You glance at her schedule, which is the same as yours, but without the classes in healing and barrier magic. She's replaced them both with more zanjutsu lessons.
You hand the papers back in, get a small coin purse full of odd currency, and you're done. It feels anticlimactic, almost exactly like you did when you first woke up as a soul in the afterlife, though nothing like the blind panic and worry you remember from after when you died.
...Run over by a truck. How pathetic could you get? If Chad'd been hit by a truck it'd be the truck that died and had to watch their sisters stare at... the space where you were. Where you would have been standing, if you hadn't been. You know.
The worst part was waiting all day, stewing in your own fury, until the soul reaper in the hat came along and explained what'd happened, and that he'd have to send you on to the afterlife before you turned into a monster -a hollow. You hadn't wanted to go, but once you knew that hollows go for their living families first, it hadn't even been a choice.
One year, you promise to yourself.
You'll see your family again in one year. "Yuzu, Karin, dad, all of you... just hold on."
Unfortunately, you can't give everything one hundred percent effort, or you'll burn yourself out. What will you count as your top training priorities? Vote for three in the following format.
[] option
[] option
[] option
The vote will be tallied by line. The three individual option with the most votes will be your initial top training priority. The option with the fewest will start as your lowest priority. Etc.
[] hand to hand
[] healing magic
[] movement magic
[] barrier magic
[] destruction magic
[] swords
"You... said yes?" The skinny girl repeats, astonished. "But Ichimaru is a captain. Accepting his patronage would have given you a guaranteed spot in his division!"
Which yeah, you kind of figured, but there's more to it than that. "I'm not here just to get a spot. I've got a goal to achieve, and anybody who graduates in a year is probably going to get more than just one offer, I figure. Plus," you grimace. "I don't want to feel obligated to join up if he offers me a spot in his division."
"I see. You're very confident that you can graduate in a year."
"I've got to be. There's no way I'll do it if I doubt myself."
Takako's expression takes on a wan caste. "It's not quite that simple, Kurosaki."
You ignore her.
The next station is class registration, where an elderly woman passes both of you a pair of papers. Yours is different than Takako's, which has an ink seal stamped into a box on the bottom, but before you can do more than notice that obvious difference the noble woman slides yours back. "Ichigo Kurosaki will be advanced to class 1, sponsored by the Omaeda clan." She says.
The aged woman raises her eyebrows, but shrugs and pulls a simple stamp out of her sleeve, marking the appropriate spot. Then she withdraws a pen, and writes OMAEDA below it.
"Thanks." You say.
She nods. "You're welcome."
After that you both look at the papers, which seem to be lists of classes and times throughout the week. At first you're not sure, but a quick check verifies that no two classes are at the same time. Most of the subjects are familiar to you, ones that require a certain amount of proficiency in order to pass their mandatory examinations, but there are a few that have differences, like kido. Instead of there just being one category, there are three: bakudo, hado, kaido -binding, destructive, and healing. Then, of course, there's the things you expected such as zanjutsu, hakuda, and hoho, and the things that make you scratch your head. "What do calligraphy and haiku have to do with being a soul reaper?"
"They're meditative arts." The woman at registration says croakily. "Zanpakuto of a contemplative nature often desire their users to become more in tune with their surroundings, and to gain some manner of self reflection that poetry and art provide."
"And zanjutsu is swordsmanship, right?" You ask, just to be sure.
Which is when the young woman next to you decides that staying silent wasn't accomplishing anything. "Yes. Of course, you will need more skills other than simple zanjutsu. Kido at the least, destructive and otherwise, perhaps barriers- " Takako lays out options you'd only glanced over at blistering speed, timidity vanished under the ever growing mass.
"Shouldn't I focus on one thing, if I want to graduate quickly?" You say, considering just signing up for all the zanjutsu slots and nothing else.
"Only if you want to be nothing more than a brainless thug, like so many commoners." And just like that you're reminded that Takako is one of those nobles you were thinking poorly of, admittedly for no reason other than that Soul Society still has nobles with actual power. You'll need to try harder to remember that, in the future. "Anyway, you should definitely take these classes, and you can sign up for meditation in the spring should your zanpakuto spirit need more prompting to bond with you."
Before you can say anything to object you're signed up for one class a week in almost everything. No day save Sunday is completely free of classes, though you only have zanjutsu on Saturday. You do the normal thing to estimate how much time each class will take, doubling the length of the class for good measure and adding that as 'practice time', and frown. "What if I want free time?"
"Then drop one of the classes. Class 1 members can do that. It's a benefit of being a more advanced student."
Dropping a class. Gah. If you hadn't always assumed you'd just inherit the family clinic, and had been the kind of guy to get stressed about bad marks on your record stopping you from getting into a good college... Well, some of your classmates would be upset with you for dropping anything, at least, but it looks like Takako knows better than you so whatever.
SCHEDULE
Monday: Hakuda (kaido)
Tuesday: Hoho
Thursday: Kido (bakudo)
Friday: Kido (hado)
Saturday: Zanjutsu
Sunday:
You do some quick annotation on a blank piece of paper to keep better track of things.
SCHEDULE
Monday: Hakuda, Kido (kaido) -hand to hand, healing magic
Tuesday: Hoho -movement magic (?)
Thursday: Kido (bakudo) -barrier magic
Friday: Kido (hado) -destruction magic
Saturday: Zanjutsu -swords
Sunday:
"Healing, huh?" You murmur. The idea appeals. "My dad's a healer."
"Maybe you'll have an advantage, if the teacher is anything like him."
"Hopefully the teacher's not like him at all." You grumble. "The old man's a maniac."
"I believe I'm familiar with the feeling." Takako says, commiserating.
You glance at her schedule, which is the same as yours, but without the classes in healing and barrier magic. She's replaced them both with more zanjutsu lessons.
You hand the papers back in, get a small coin purse full of odd currency, and you're done. It feels anticlimactic, almost exactly like you did when you first woke up as a soul in the afterlife, though nothing like the blind panic and worry you remember from after when you died.
...Run over by a truck. How pathetic could you get? If Chad'd been hit by a truck it'd be the truck that died and had to watch their sisters stare at... the space where you were. Where you would have been standing, if you hadn't been. You know.
The worst part was waiting all day, stewing in your own fury, until the soul reaper in the hat came along and explained what'd happened, and that he'd have to send you on to the afterlife before you turned into a monster -a hollow. You hadn't wanted to go, but once you knew that hollows go for their living families first, it hadn't even been a choice.
One year, you promise to yourself.
You'll see your family again in one year. "Yuzu, Karin, dad, all of you... just hold on."
Unfortunately, you can't give everything one hundred percent effort, or you'll burn yourself out. What will you count as your top training priorities? Vote for three in the following format.
[] option
[] option
[] option
The vote will be tallied by line. The three individual option with the most votes will be your initial top training priority. The option with the fewest will start as your lowest priority. Etc.
[] hand to hand
[] healing magic
[] movement magic
[] barrier magic
[] destruction magic
[] swords
005
TPK
Hello, friend.
Training Priorities:
1. Hoho
2. Zanjutsu
3. Kido (kaido)
4. Hakuda
5. Kido (hado)
6. Kido (bakudo)
You learn a few things over the helter skelter week you're flung headfirst into. Gengorō Ōnabara, the man in charge of class 1, knows exactly what to do with people who think that they can handle anything he dishes out.
He works them. Into. The. Ground.
The man's a big tan giant, and while the first thing he said is that size isn't everything, it sure does give him a better reach than you have! He comes at you hard and fast. Your leg sweeps out as you push him further along his path, taking his feet out from under him, but he has your shirt in his clenched fist and you go down with him.
He throws himself back upright with a heave while you're still rising, and this is just like fighting your dad whenever he decides that you can handle the next stage of his demented surprise attacks. He's just a little faster than you, fighting at a level you can't quite match. At least, you couldn't match that level when you started.
Instead of rising straight up you slam your elbow forward at the same time as you dive, digging the pointed joint into Gengoro's stomach. It feels like you're striking a brick wall, but he has to take a step back to absorb the full force of it. "A good hit." He acknowledges. "But you need to take proper advantage of your spiritual energy, Kurosaki. You can stand much more than your mind expects your body to be able to, because you have no body to hold you back. Before next week I expect you to not flinch so much. You can use the training arms until the end of the lesson."
And that's the second thing. You used to think about strength as muscle mass, good posture, and timing, but now... soul-body muscle matters so much less than how much spiritual energy you have, in the afterlife. Apparently some souls are more full of energy than others, and that energy makes you stronger, faster, and tougher as well as powering magic stuff.
You have a lot of spiritual power. That's one of the first things anybody can tell about you, because it's the reason your sword got so big and has such an unusual shape. A Soul Reaper's power expresses itself through the size of their zanpakuto. You can't have a big sword without the power to make it that big, so you having a giant one so early is supposed to make you stand out as some kind of natural powerhouse in the making.
Mostly you think it's inconvenient, and every now and then you get it caught on something.
If you had more control then you could seal it, make it take a more normal size, but it'll take a while to get that control.
The third thing you learn is that battlefield healing is both simpler and harder than you thought it'd be.
"You need to keep your energy in harmony with your patient's. Keep your hands over the center of their abdomen, about where the diaphragm is." Hanataro, the healing kido instructor, repeats for about the fourth time. This class is much smaller than the crowd the previous one had. Apparently not many people want to learn how to use magic powers to heal people. There are only four of you here, all gathered around the tired-looking man as he walks you through the steps, demonstrating on the bald man tied to the table.
"Why's he tied down?" You ask.
"He tried to escape before he was discharged, resulting in -aaah- torn muscles, the cut in his stomach opening again, and a broken door."
The baldy nods. He looks pleased.
"So he volunteered to get more healing at the academy instead of from the fourth division healers. At least I think he volunteered. He did say that he'd do anything to get out sooner... Do one of you want to try?"
Well. Okay.
You step forward and put your hands in the air just above the man's diaphragm. You feel for your power and sort of push it out of your hands, concentrating on making it 'fuzzy', which is how you make it mesh with the patient's.
A faint green glow sputters to life from your palms. "I feel it resonating." You say as your power seeps into the injured man, supplementing his own and encouraging his body to heal.
"Good. Madarame, do you feel it working?"
The man shrugs, hesitates, and then nods. Shortly afterward you lose your grip on the technique and it fails. But it worked!
You smile, but it feels weird, so you stop and step aside to let someone else have a try as the healer talks. "That's the most basic healing kido, and the one that's most often used even in life-threatening situations. It scales up to match the worst injuries very easily, so all you have to do is push more into it, but it's also very sensitive. If you've been bitten or scratched by a hollow, don't use it. Seriously, don't. Even a little hollow spirit energy can cause some... just don't risk it. It's not a good idea."
I'll gloss over the uneventful classes over the next update to familiarize you with the current 'normal' that Ichigo is going through, ending each week-spanning update with a significant extra curricular activity voted on in the previous update.
So what happens?
[] Takako gives you a lesson on the various noble clans.
[] You get an unexpected visitor from Takako's family.
[] An upperclassman challenges you to a fight.
[] A cat decides that it lives in your dorm now.
1. Hoho
2. Zanjutsu
3. Kido (kaido)
4. Hakuda
5. Kido (hado)
6. Kido (bakudo)
You learn a few things over the helter skelter week you're flung headfirst into. Gengorō Ōnabara, the man in charge of class 1, knows exactly what to do with people who think that they can handle anything he dishes out.
He works them. Into. The. Ground.
The man's a big tan giant, and while the first thing he said is that size isn't everything, it sure does give him a better reach than you have! He comes at you hard and fast. Your leg sweeps out as you push him further along his path, taking his feet out from under him, but he has your shirt in his clenched fist and you go down with him.
He throws himself back upright with a heave while you're still rising, and this is just like fighting your dad whenever he decides that you can handle the next stage of his demented surprise attacks. He's just a little faster than you, fighting at a level you can't quite match. At least, you couldn't match that level when you started.
Instead of rising straight up you slam your elbow forward at the same time as you dive, digging the pointed joint into Gengoro's stomach. It feels like you're striking a brick wall, but he has to take a step back to absorb the full force of it. "A good hit." He acknowledges. "But you need to take proper advantage of your spiritual energy, Kurosaki. You can stand much more than your mind expects your body to be able to, because you have no body to hold you back. Before next week I expect you to not flinch so much. You can use the training arms until the end of the lesson."
And that's the second thing. You used to think about strength as muscle mass, good posture, and timing, but now... soul-body muscle matters so much less than how much spiritual energy you have, in the afterlife. Apparently some souls are more full of energy than others, and that energy makes you stronger, faster, and tougher as well as powering magic stuff.
You have a lot of spiritual power. That's one of the first things anybody can tell about you, because it's the reason your sword got so big and has such an unusual shape. A Soul Reaper's power expresses itself through the size of their zanpakuto. You can't have a big sword without the power to make it that big, so you having a giant one so early is supposed to make you stand out as some kind of natural powerhouse in the making.
Mostly you think it's inconvenient, and every now and then you get it caught on something.
If you had more control then you could seal it, make it take a more normal size, but it'll take a while to get that control.
The third thing you learn is that battlefield healing is both simpler and harder than you thought it'd be.
"You need to keep your energy in harmony with your patient's. Keep your hands over the center of their abdomen, about where the diaphragm is." Hanataro, the healing kido instructor, repeats for about the fourth time. This class is much smaller than the crowd the previous one had. Apparently not many people want to learn how to use magic powers to heal people. There are only four of you here, all gathered around the tired-looking man as he walks you through the steps, demonstrating on the bald man tied to the table.
"Why's he tied down?" You ask.
"He tried to escape before he was discharged, resulting in -aaah- torn muscles, the cut in his stomach opening again, and a broken door."
The baldy nods. He looks pleased.
"So he volunteered to get more healing at the academy instead of from the fourth division healers. At least I think he volunteered. He did say that he'd do anything to get out sooner... Do one of you want to try?"
Well. Okay.
You step forward and put your hands in the air just above the man's diaphragm. You feel for your power and sort of push it out of your hands, concentrating on making it 'fuzzy', which is how you make it mesh with the patient's.
A faint green glow sputters to life from your palms. "I feel it resonating." You say as your power seeps into the injured man, supplementing his own and encouraging his body to heal.
"Good. Madarame, do you feel it working?"
The man shrugs, hesitates, and then nods. Shortly afterward you lose your grip on the technique and it fails. But it worked!
You smile, but it feels weird, so you stop and step aside to let someone else have a try as the healer talks. "That's the most basic healing kido, and the one that's most often used even in life-threatening situations. It scales up to match the worst injuries very easily, so all you have to do is push more into it, but it's also very sensitive. If you've been bitten or scratched by a hollow, don't use it. Seriously, don't. Even a little hollow spirit energy can cause some... just don't risk it. It's not a good idea."
I'll gloss over the uneventful classes over the next update to familiarize you with the current 'normal' that Ichigo is going through, ending each week-spanning update with a significant extra curricular activity voted on in the previous update.
So what happens?
[] Takako gives you a lesson on the various noble clans.
[] You get an unexpected visitor from Takako's family.
[] An upperclassman challenges you to a fight.
[] A cat decides that it lives in your dorm now.
006
TPK
Hello, friend.
I've fixed the schedule on the first page.
Your class on Hoho is... interesting.
"GO FASTER!" A man so obese as to practically be round appear in front of you so quickly that you can't track him until he stops, a black ball topped by an increasingly red face. "The defining difference between a dead soul reaper and a living one IS THAT THE DEAD ONE DOES NOT MOVE WITH THE AGILITY AND GRACE OF A CAT!"
He grabs you by the lapels and throws you into another group of students, who scatter in all directions. You roll to your feet. This man is insane!
A familiar woman flies at you from the left. You step forward, catch Takako as she passes, and then set her down on her feet.
"Thank you for the assistance." The scrawny woman is shaking almost too much to stand still. Her eyes jump from side to side, looking for the elite movement class' teacher. The way the healing class worked, where there was one teacher assigned to learners of a given level, isn't how the combat classes work at all. There are more experienced students mixed in with you.
You wince in sympathy as a more skilled student takes a rubber ball to the back of the head and goes down in a heap. Taking a deep breath, you square your shoulders, bend your knees, and try to anticipate the next attack. Speed. Agility. You need more-
A blur of black and red. You step back too fast and stumble, but are caught by a meaty fist grabbing your already wrinkled lapels. "Better." The teacher grunts. "BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"
What kind of crazy place have you gotten into?
The next three days are almost relaxing, in comparison. Barrier magic, destructive magic, and swordplay apparently can't be trained as rough and tumble as the rest of the combat subjects are., which makes sense. A badly constructed healing kido just won't work. The effects of failing to dodge can be determined by the teacher. It's hard for an amateur fist fighter to kill somebody quickly enough that the instructor won't be able to intervene.
But bakudo and hado are dangerous, combat-ready arts that can have unexpected effects like backfires, splash damage, and the like if improperly formulated, or so you're told by a stern-looking man that looks like nothing so much as an old-fashioned Confucian examiner from anime, slim and with an exaggerated tiny beard, and wearing a little hat. He teaches both classes, and both classes get much the same lesson. Over the upcoming weeks you'll be learning rhymes by rote, and associating individual ways to manipulate your spiritual energy with lines of the rhymes, so that by reciting the rhyme you'll instinctively cast a spell.
...It sounds interesting enough to keep your attention, at least.
Zanjutsu also spends half of its first lesson on a subject you call 'how not to cut your own god damned head off', mostly because that's what the teacher calls it. He's an unseated member of the eleventh division, and, "I handle the rookies."
He prowls around the front of the room, giving each of the four dozen people in it a once over. "Whether because you skipped zanjutsu your first year or you're just that bad, I'm here because I can educate you on the fine art of killing things with your zanpakuto. Today, we will learn a simple strike. Take your sword in both hands. Raise them to the level of your eyes. Swing down until just before the hilt meets your gut. Like this."
He shows the cut. "This is the most basic attack. From now on I want you to use this instead of flailing around wildly if you get jumped. If a hollow ambushes you, turn and cut. If somebody messes up your fancy moves in a spar, you cut them. This is a strike that goes for the head, and that's because everything has a head, and it needs its head to kill you. Now I want all of you to give me four hundred repetitions while I start on correcting your stances and junk. Kurosaki... I'll do you first."
It's just like being back in martial arts classes, for a few hours. Learn a move, repeat the move. It's kind of nostalgic.
On Sunday Takako insists on you sitting down over lunch while she talks about the various noble clans of Soul Society. She leafs through a book that looks fairly old, after she apologizes for not having the up to date copy, and points out the clans in passing. She lingers on some, the ones who work for the second division and the omnitsu... the omitusu? The ninjas. There's the Omaeda family, her family. They're minor nobility with a history of serving as the second in command of the second division. The Fon family traditionally serve in the stealth forces. She passes over a page featuring a dark-skinned woman without commentary. You just catch the name Shihoun and a cocky grin before she moves on. Then she moves on to the major nobility and the minor nobility who might as well be major because their heads of family have been captains for hundreds of years.
She insists you take the book with you to read over.
"There are five great families." You read, but recognize one of them as the Shihoun family, whose page you checked in private. They're an almost defunct clan whose head deserted alongside a fellow captain something like a hundred years ago, after... You make a face at the gruesome descriptions of Urahara Kisuke's experiments. At least the current head looks happy. He's a young kid. How old could he have been when he found out that his sister was covering for a man who'd do that kind of thing?
Then you turn to the Shibas, and freeze. "They really do look similar." You whisper as you trace your finger over the picture of the current head, Kukaku Shiba. And then you grimace. "If Karin and Yuzu are going to grow up to look like that, I'd better figure out a way to make sure nobody takes advantage of them. I wonder if Chad'd agree to stand in for big brother duty?"
But all thoughts of Chad intimidating teenage boys slip from your mind when you finally recognize the man in the picture below Kukaku, next to the words 'branch head'. Isshin Shiba.
Your dad. Late that night you sit on your bed, in the tiny student dorm, and stare down at the color illustration of a man that is undoubtedly your father in a reference guide to Soul Society nobility. He doesn't have facial hair in this picture, but a few seconds with a pencil give him the familiar beard. It has to be him. Captain of the tenth division, it says here.
What?
[] You need to talk to somebody about this.
-[] Takako might know somebody appropriate.
-[] Maybe that captain, Gin?
-[] Somebody from the tenth division.
[] You'll hold off until you can talk to your dad directly.
Your class on Hoho is... interesting.
"GO FASTER!" A man so obese as to practically be round appear in front of you so quickly that you can't track him until he stops, a black ball topped by an increasingly red face. "The defining difference between a dead soul reaper and a living one IS THAT THE DEAD ONE DOES NOT MOVE WITH THE AGILITY AND GRACE OF A CAT!"
He grabs you by the lapels and throws you into another group of students, who scatter in all directions. You roll to your feet. This man is insane!
A familiar woman flies at you from the left. You step forward, catch Takako as she passes, and then set her down on her feet.
"Thank you for the assistance." The scrawny woman is shaking almost too much to stand still. Her eyes jump from side to side, looking for the elite movement class' teacher. The way the healing class worked, where there was one teacher assigned to learners of a given level, isn't how the combat classes work at all. There are more experienced students mixed in with you.
You wince in sympathy as a more skilled student takes a rubber ball to the back of the head and goes down in a heap. Taking a deep breath, you square your shoulders, bend your knees, and try to anticipate the next attack. Speed. Agility. You need more-
A blur of black and red. You step back too fast and stumble, but are caught by a meaty fist grabbing your already wrinkled lapels. "Better." The teacher grunts. "BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"
What kind of crazy place have you gotten into?
The next three days are almost relaxing, in comparison. Barrier magic, destructive magic, and swordplay apparently can't be trained as rough and tumble as the rest of the combat subjects are., which makes sense. A badly constructed healing kido just won't work. The effects of failing to dodge can be determined by the teacher. It's hard for an amateur fist fighter to kill somebody quickly enough that the instructor won't be able to intervene.
But bakudo and hado are dangerous, combat-ready arts that can have unexpected effects like backfires, splash damage, and the like if improperly formulated, or so you're told by a stern-looking man that looks like nothing so much as an old-fashioned Confucian examiner from anime, slim and with an exaggerated tiny beard, and wearing a little hat. He teaches both classes, and both classes get much the same lesson. Over the upcoming weeks you'll be learning rhymes by rote, and associating individual ways to manipulate your spiritual energy with lines of the rhymes, so that by reciting the rhyme you'll instinctively cast a spell.
...It sounds interesting enough to keep your attention, at least.
Zanjutsu also spends half of its first lesson on a subject you call 'how not to cut your own god damned head off', mostly because that's what the teacher calls it. He's an unseated member of the eleventh division, and, "I handle the rookies."
He prowls around the front of the room, giving each of the four dozen people in it a once over. "Whether because you skipped zanjutsu your first year or you're just that bad, I'm here because I can educate you on the fine art of killing things with your zanpakuto. Today, we will learn a simple strike. Take your sword in both hands. Raise them to the level of your eyes. Swing down until just before the hilt meets your gut. Like this."
He shows the cut. "This is the most basic attack. From now on I want you to use this instead of flailing around wildly if you get jumped. If a hollow ambushes you, turn and cut. If somebody messes up your fancy moves in a spar, you cut them. This is a strike that goes for the head, and that's because everything has a head, and it needs its head to kill you. Now I want all of you to give me four hundred repetitions while I start on correcting your stances and junk. Kurosaki... I'll do you first."
It's just like being back in martial arts classes, for a few hours. Learn a move, repeat the move. It's kind of nostalgic.
On Sunday Takako insists on you sitting down over lunch while she talks about the various noble clans of Soul Society. She leafs through a book that looks fairly old, after she apologizes for not having the up to date copy, and points out the clans in passing. She lingers on some, the ones who work for the second division and the omnitsu... the omitusu? The ninjas. There's the Omaeda family, her family. They're minor nobility with a history of serving as the second in command of the second division. The Fon family traditionally serve in the stealth forces. She passes over a page featuring a dark-skinned woman without commentary. You just catch the name Shihoun and a cocky grin before she moves on. Then she moves on to the major nobility and the minor nobility who might as well be major because their heads of family have been captains for hundreds of years.
She insists you take the book with you to read over.
"There are five great families." You read, but recognize one of them as the Shihoun family, whose page you checked in private. They're an almost defunct clan whose head deserted alongside a fellow captain something like a hundred years ago, after... You make a face at the gruesome descriptions of Urahara Kisuke's experiments. At least the current head looks happy. He's a young kid. How old could he have been when he found out that his sister was covering for a man who'd do that kind of thing?
Then you turn to the Shibas, and freeze. "They really do look similar." You whisper as you trace your finger over the picture of the current head, Kukaku Shiba. And then you grimace. "If Karin and Yuzu are going to grow up to look like that, I'd better figure out a way to make sure nobody takes advantage of them. I wonder if Chad'd agree to stand in for big brother duty?"
But all thoughts of Chad intimidating teenage boys slip from your mind when you finally recognize the man in the picture below Kukaku, next to the words 'branch head'. Isshin Shiba.
Your dad. Late that night you sit on your bed, in the tiny student dorm, and stare down at the color illustration of a man that is undoubtedly your father in a reference guide to Soul Society nobility. He doesn't have facial hair in this picture, but a few seconds with a pencil give him the familiar beard. It has to be him. Captain of the tenth division, it says here.
What?
[] You need to talk to somebody about this.
-[] Takako might know somebody appropriate.
-[] Maybe that captain, Gin?
-[] Somebody from the tenth division.
[] You'll hold off until you can talk to your dad directly.
007
TPK
Hello, friend.
[62] You need to talk to somebody about this.
-[41] Takako might know somebody appropriate.
-[15] Somebody from the tenth division.
-[6] Maybe that captain, Gin?
[35] You'll hold off until you can talk to your dad directly.
After one of your classes you ask Takako if she'd mind a word. Strangely enough, actually getting over yourself an asking for help is the hardest part of the whole process. Once you actually explain, in careful words, that you'd like to know who you can talk to about the Shiba clan, it only takes her a few seconds to come up with the best person.
You ignore that she spent several seconds scrutinizing you with a disgruntled expression on her face before answering. You wear one similar to it most of the time. Complaining would be kind of stupid.
It turns out that academy students are permitted to return to the outer districts as long as it doesn't interfere with their studies, so on your second Sunday since enrolling you travel out the west gate. "Follow the road past where the city ends, and I'll know it when I see it. What kind of directions are those?"
You uniform scares off the various street toughs, pickpockets, and beggars that grow in number as you get out of the well-to-do areas and into the seedier districts, or maybe it's your giant zanpakuto? Either way you get your space, no matter how crowded the streets get. For a little while it's almost like being back home, surrounded by people bustling this way and that, but you leave that far behind for slums and shacks left to rot.
And then you leave that, too, behind.
The ground makes slight hills, and as you crest one you look down to see what is, undoubtedly, the house that you were told you couldn't miss.
Takako was right.
It looks normal, if old-fashioned, until you realize that there isn't a torii gate over the entry path, but a pair of giant fists. Two... giant fists. The evidence that the Shibas are related to your father is mounting. They're fist bumping each other, or flexing. It's impossible to tell which.
"Ho! Who goes there!" A muscular man wearing a funny-looking outfit hails you as he approaches from the house. "Be warned that the guardians of the Shiba, Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko, shall brook no insult!"
...They're wearing sailor uniforms. You can't think of them any other way. Those hats- the neckerchiefs- the thigh length jackets-
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, and I was hoping to talk to Kukaku Shiba?"
"I can't imagine a student at the soul reapers' academy would have anything to say to the clan head, unless you're here to buy fireworks." The man says. You're not sure if he's Koganehiko or Shiroganehiko. He didn't say.
"I really do just want to talk." You say, and then pull a bottle of wine that cost half of your weekly student stipend out of your surprisingly deep and convenient pockets. "I was told that I should bring a gift?"
Seconds later you've been whisked past the giant arm gate, frisked for hidden weapons, relieved of your liqueur, and deposited on a cushion in front of a woman wearing approximately half a red shirt. Her right arm is missing from midway to the elbow down, and a white scarf covers most of her head. Tufts of unruly black hair poke out between the layers. Her skirt is gathered halfway up her thighs, despite its generous length, by the way she sits with one leg cocked up.
The wine you brought as a gift is in her hands, open. "Come in, come in. The least I can do is hear what you have to say before I kick you out on your ass, soul reaper." She says with a leering grin. "Though you've got good taste in wine. How'd you pick it?"
"I asked a friend." You say, having never seriously drank before.
"Have a cup?"
"I'd rather just talk." You say, after eying the sword on the Shiba clan head's back. "I've got a few questions about the Shiba clan."
"I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere because I don't like crowds. There are only four noble clans because I told central forty-six where they could shove everything they preached about honor, after soul reaper loyalty got Kaien killed fighting a hollow he had no business trying to cleanse alone. Yes, my other brother probably did do whatever you're going to accuse him of, but if you try to make something of it I'll shoot you out of my cannon." She pours another cup of wine, but then thinks better of it and drinks what was left in the bottle instead. "Any other questions?"
Kaien. You don't know that name, and file it away for later. "What do you know about Isshin Shiba?"
Kukaku stares at you for a few seconds before she shrugs. "...Now there's a name I thought I wouldn't hear again. I think he was my uncle? He was a captain, tenth division, until he got himself killed on a mission to Naruki pretty recently. It had to be in the past thirty years. Maybe even sixteen years ago?"
And then she looks at you. She actually looks at you. "How recently did you die, kid?"
"Less than three weeks ago." You say. "Before that I lived in Karakura town. That's pretty close to Naruki, and I'm fifteen."
Kukaku roars in laughter. "Bwa! Hahahaha!" She slaps the floor with her open palm for emphasis. "You're trying to tell me that you're a member of my family, kid? Well maybe I believe you're not stupid enough to lie to my face." When she looks at you, there isn't a pressure in the air, but you do feel a chill go down your neck. "So why, exactly, did a respected captain of... no, never mind. If you're that slacker's kid he wouldn't have told you. Still, this is rotten timing."
"Why?"
"If you'd come here a week earlier then I'd have been able to ask a friend if you were lying... she's slick, but there's a difference between not bringing something up and lying to my face." Her eyes flick over to you, and then back to the wall. "And you're not lying, but you could be wrong. 'M not sure if I want you to be right. Isshin deserting would be... that would be different."
From what you've picked up news that your dad deserted from the Gotai Thirteen would be, to put it lightly, a big deal. But you're not sure what you're supposed to do now. "I kind of hoped you'd be able to tell me that there was no way it was possible." You say with a grimace.
"Yeah, well. Welcome to real life, kid. It happens whether you're ready or not." Kukaku gives you a lopsided grin, and rises smoothly to her feet in a way that proves her alcohol tolerance is something more than mortal. "Whatd'you want anyway -a big happy family reunion?"
You think about that for a bit, mouth pressed into a thin line. "I guess I could get to know you better, but mostly I was just curious. I'm too busy training to take the trek out here too often, though."
"You've got six years. Live a little." The older woman says.
"I've got one year." You refute. "I'm going to graduate in one year, and I'll take whichever squad can get me a patrol to Karakura the fastest."
"You got a girl in the living world?"
"My sisters."
That wipes the knowing look off Kukaku's face. "Bad timing." She repeats again, and then hesitates.
"Do you have a way to talk to the human world, to get there?" You ask. "You mentioned that you have a friend who could have checked!"
Your relative screws up her face. "Yeah, but... I've got sympathy, Ichigo, but I'm not going to risk something on faith. I don't know you, and I don't know if I can trust you, even if your story sounds right and you do look like family. You understand, right?"
As much as it hurts to admit it, you do. "Yeah. I get it, but there has to be way to prove that my Isshin is the man you knew, one way or the other, like a magic family record or something."
"GRAAAAH!" Kukaku rounds on her heel and slams her fist into the wall. The whole house shakes on its foundation with the power behind her blow, and when she turns around to face you across the room again, it's to level a finger your way. "Fine. Here's the deal, kid. Zanpakuto are pretty similar in direct family lines. It doesn't show up in Soul Society that often because of all the adoption and the people reincarnating as spirits after getting killed in the living world, but it happens. If you're Isshin's kid, then you'll have a similar shikai to him. So here's my condition! I'll get a message into the living world for you... if your shikai is similar enough to Isshin's that I'm convinced you're his son."
"I won't let you go back on this deal." You promise. "I've just got two questions."
"Ask." Kukaku answers.
"What's a shikai, and how do you get it?" You ask.
Kukaku grins, and it's not a nice smile. "It's your zanpakuto's first special power. And you get it by bonding with your sword. I'll help you with that myself, if you want, because you've got guts."
You get the impression that taking Kukaku's offer might be hazardous to your health, if her training is anything like your dad's. On the other hand, can you afford to say no?
[] You'll unlock shikai some other way.
-[] Ask Takako if she knows anything.
-[] Try the meditation thing.
[] Accept Kukaku's offer of help.
-[] Train with her once a week.
-[] Stay with her until it works.
-[41] Takako might know somebody appropriate.
-[15] Somebody from the tenth division.
-[6] Maybe that captain, Gin?
[35] You'll hold off until you can talk to your dad directly.
After one of your classes you ask Takako if she'd mind a word. Strangely enough, actually getting over yourself an asking for help is the hardest part of the whole process. Once you actually explain, in careful words, that you'd like to know who you can talk to about the Shiba clan, it only takes her a few seconds to come up with the best person.
You ignore that she spent several seconds scrutinizing you with a disgruntled expression on her face before answering. You wear one similar to it most of the time. Complaining would be kind of stupid.
It turns out that academy students are permitted to return to the outer districts as long as it doesn't interfere with their studies, so on your second Sunday since enrolling you travel out the west gate. "Follow the road past where the city ends, and I'll know it when I see it. What kind of directions are those?"
You uniform scares off the various street toughs, pickpockets, and beggars that grow in number as you get out of the well-to-do areas and into the seedier districts, or maybe it's your giant zanpakuto? Either way you get your space, no matter how crowded the streets get. For a little while it's almost like being back home, surrounded by people bustling this way and that, but you leave that far behind for slums and shacks left to rot.
And then you leave that, too, behind.
The ground makes slight hills, and as you crest one you look down to see what is, undoubtedly, the house that you were told you couldn't miss.
Takako was right.
It looks normal, if old-fashioned, until you realize that there isn't a torii gate over the entry path, but a pair of giant fists. Two... giant fists. The evidence that the Shibas are related to your father is mounting. They're fist bumping each other, or flexing. It's impossible to tell which.
"Ho! Who goes there!" A muscular man wearing a funny-looking outfit hails you as he approaches from the house. "Be warned that the guardians of the Shiba, Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko, shall brook no insult!"
...They're wearing sailor uniforms. You can't think of them any other way. Those hats- the neckerchiefs- the thigh length jackets-
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, and I was hoping to talk to Kukaku Shiba?"
"I can't imagine a student at the soul reapers' academy would have anything to say to the clan head, unless you're here to buy fireworks." The man says. You're not sure if he's Koganehiko or Shiroganehiko. He didn't say.
"I really do just want to talk." You say, and then pull a bottle of wine that cost half of your weekly student stipend out of your surprisingly deep and convenient pockets. "I was told that I should bring a gift?"
Seconds later you've been whisked past the giant arm gate, frisked for hidden weapons, relieved of your liqueur, and deposited on a cushion in front of a woman wearing approximately half a red shirt. Her right arm is missing from midway to the elbow down, and a white scarf covers most of her head. Tufts of unruly black hair poke out between the layers. Her skirt is gathered halfway up her thighs, despite its generous length, by the way she sits with one leg cocked up.
The wine you brought as a gift is in her hands, open. "Come in, come in. The least I can do is hear what you have to say before I kick you out on your ass, soul reaper." She says with a leering grin. "Though you've got good taste in wine. How'd you pick it?"
"I asked a friend." You say, having never seriously drank before.
"Have a cup?"
"I'd rather just talk." You say, after eying the sword on the Shiba clan head's back. "I've got a few questions about the Shiba clan."
"I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere because I don't like crowds. There are only four noble clans because I told central forty-six where they could shove everything they preached about honor, after soul reaper loyalty got Kaien killed fighting a hollow he had no business trying to cleanse alone. Yes, my other brother probably did do whatever you're going to accuse him of, but if you try to make something of it I'll shoot you out of my cannon." She pours another cup of wine, but then thinks better of it and drinks what was left in the bottle instead. "Any other questions?"
Kaien. You don't know that name, and file it away for later. "What do you know about Isshin Shiba?"
Kukaku stares at you for a few seconds before she shrugs. "...Now there's a name I thought I wouldn't hear again. I think he was my uncle? He was a captain, tenth division, until he got himself killed on a mission to Naruki pretty recently. It had to be in the past thirty years. Maybe even sixteen years ago?"
And then she looks at you. She actually looks at you. "How recently did you die, kid?"
"Less than three weeks ago." You say. "Before that I lived in Karakura town. That's pretty close to Naruki, and I'm fifteen."
Kukaku roars in laughter. "Bwa! Hahahaha!" She slaps the floor with her open palm for emphasis. "You're trying to tell me that you're a member of my family, kid? Well maybe I believe you're not stupid enough to lie to my face." When she looks at you, there isn't a pressure in the air, but you do feel a chill go down your neck. "So why, exactly, did a respected captain of... no, never mind. If you're that slacker's kid he wouldn't have told you. Still, this is rotten timing."
"Why?"
"If you'd come here a week earlier then I'd have been able to ask a friend if you were lying... she's slick, but there's a difference between not bringing something up and lying to my face." Her eyes flick over to you, and then back to the wall. "And you're not lying, but you could be wrong. 'M not sure if I want you to be right. Isshin deserting would be... that would be different."
From what you've picked up news that your dad deserted from the Gotai Thirteen would be, to put it lightly, a big deal. But you're not sure what you're supposed to do now. "I kind of hoped you'd be able to tell me that there was no way it was possible." You say with a grimace.
"Yeah, well. Welcome to real life, kid. It happens whether you're ready or not." Kukaku gives you a lopsided grin, and rises smoothly to her feet in a way that proves her alcohol tolerance is something more than mortal. "Whatd'you want anyway -a big happy family reunion?"
You think about that for a bit, mouth pressed into a thin line. "I guess I could get to know you better, but mostly I was just curious. I'm too busy training to take the trek out here too often, though."
"You've got six years. Live a little." The older woman says.
"I've got one year." You refute. "I'm going to graduate in one year, and I'll take whichever squad can get me a patrol to Karakura the fastest."
"You got a girl in the living world?"
"My sisters."
That wipes the knowing look off Kukaku's face. "Bad timing." She repeats again, and then hesitates.
"Do you have a way to talk to the human world, to get there?" You ask. "You mentioned that you have a friend who could have checked!"
Your relative screws up her face. "Yeah, but... I've got sympathy, Ichigo, but I'm not going to risk something on faith. I don't know you, and I don't know if I can trust you, even if your story sounds right and you do look like family. You understand, right?"
As much as it hurts to admit it, you do. "Yeah. I get it, but there has to be way to prove that my Isshin is the man you knew, one way or the other, like a magic family record or something."
"GRAAAAH!" Kukaku rounds on her heel and slams her fist into the wall. The whole house shakes on its foundation with the power behind her blow, and when she turns around to face you across the room again, it's to level a finger your way. "Fine. Here's the deal, kid. Zanpakuto are pretty similar in direct family lines. It doesn't show up in Soul Society that often because of all the adoption and the people reincarnating as spirits after getting killed in the living world, but it happens. If you're Isshin's kid, then you'll have a similar shikai to him. So here's my condition! I'll get a message into the living world for you... if your shikai is similar enough to Isshin's that I'm convinced you're his son."
"I won't let you go back on this deal." You promise. "I've just got two questions."
"Ask." Kukaku answers.
"What's a shikai, and how do you get it?" You ask.
Kukaku grins, and it's not a nice smile. "It's your zanpakuto's first special power. And you get it by bonding with your sword. I'll help you with that myself, if you want, because you've got guts."
You get the impression that taking Kukaku's offer might be hazardous to your health, if her training is anything like your dad's. On the other hand, can you afford to say no?
[] You'll unlock shikai some other way.
-[] Ask Takako if she knows anything.
-[] Try the meditation thing.
[] Accept Kukaku's offer of help.
-[] Train with her once a week.
-[] Stay with her until it works.